


Amid The Dravanian Flowers

by TheSpectralDuke



Series: Reinette and Rhel'to [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Aftercare, Angst, Biting, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Hand Jobs, Lemon, Marking, NSFW, Not Beta Read, Porn with Feelings, Rough Sex, Sex Pollen, Spooning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-11 22:42:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28625148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpectralDuke/pseuds/TheSpectralDuke
Summary: After helping Tailfeather's hunters with the Manufactory's latest wares, Reinette and Rhel'to steal a few bells to explore the Chocobo Forest and the base of Sohm Al. But an encounter with Dravania's flora leaves them with a desperate hunger and only one way to sate it.
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character
Series: Reinette and Rhel'to [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2045083
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	Amid The Dravanian Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> Look I just really wanted to indulge some rougher kinks 
> 
> Thanks to all the kind folks at the Book Club for continuing to enable and encourage my smut and providing me with high quality food in return. If you want to join the feast whether as chef, diner or both, feel free to follow the link and let Emet lead you to your seat: https://discord.gg/JQw5J4mVNm

Rhel'to woke to faint light through the shutters, warm sheets beneath him, and Reinette's body pressed firmly against his back with not an ilm between them. Her arms wrapped around him, one hand at his chest and the other slowly stroking down his belly.

“Reinette?” he murmured groggily, the feel of her lips in his hair dragging him quickly awake.

“Good morning, love,” she hummed against the base of his ear. Rhel'to tried to gather himself, hearing faint birdsong and the shouts of the Tailfeather hunters. The room was still gloomy, it couldn't be long past sunrise, and unfamiliar to boot. A bear fur rug lay beneath their scattered clothes on wooden floorboards, the scent of wood keen beneath Reinette's own. Her gentle breathing filled his ear as she leaned up and dragged her lips over its edge, so tight to him that he could feel her every curve and her bare breasts rested against his shoulder blades. They were both naked beneath the covers save a blue ribbon at her throat and a green at his as always, snuggled close to share warmth in the cold winter night, her front to his back like he preferred with her kisses on his crown to lull him to sleep.

Now, though, the keeper found her touch _arousing_ rather than soothing, especially as that hand on his belly slowly drifted to brush in coarse walnut curls.

“How long have you been awake?” he asked, shivering as Reinette sucked just once on his ear's edge. “Ah, Reinette...”

“Not long,” she murmured. Another suckle and he whimpered, feeling her knuckles scrape across his hard shaft. The elezen giggled into the shell of his ear. “I heard you moaning my name in your sleep, love.” Rhel'to couldn't stop his cheeks flushing warm at her playful tone, rubbing against her wonderful curves as she rubbed a finger on his nipple. “Whatever were you dreaming about?”

His breath caught in his throat at another suckle, Rhel'to's eyes slipping shut a moment as her touch overwhelmed him. “Reinette, ah-” He felt her fingers curl around his cock, her touch so light that it was unbearable even once she had him in a feather-soft vice. But then he was _hers_ , always, _forever_ , from the days they had been just a noblewoman and her pilot idly charting the Sea of Clouds. Every thing about her had been another ribbon strong as steel drawing him to her, her smile, her eyes, the way she seemed to brighten whenever they rose above the clouds. Reinette gently tightened her grip on him and Rhel'to couldn't stop the moan that escaped his mouth at her stroke. “About you,” he whispered, tipping his head back in search of more of her mouth on his ear. She accepted him eagerly, trailing kisses up to its tip then bathing it in the warmth between her lips, hand slowly moving back and forth on his shaft until he found himself rocking in answer.

“Mayhap I can help you finish that dream,” Reinette teased right into his ear. How he ached for that, longed to come undone in her hold, but as ever he was the one who reality nagged and nagged.

“But the hunters,” he protested weakly, enough to make her hands and mouth stop their sensual work, “Reinette, someone might hear, or we're supposed to be-”

“Relax,” the elezen crooned and his protests melted like ice in Thanalan. “It's only just dawn, love. We have a little time, surely.” He nodded very slightly, but that was enough to stir her back into motion. Rhel'to groaned, rubbing his back against her, feeling her nipples hardening as she too relished their friction. He wanted to return everything she did to him, put his mouth to her neck, stroke his fingers on her breasts and slip them into her heat, but when he tried to roll over to reciprocate Reinette held him still. “You work so hard, Rhel'to,” she breathed, a stroke of her tongue up his ear a pleasant but welcome surprise.

“Ah, so do you,” the miqo'te murmured with a quaking voice, feeling her mouth and body quest down. Still Reinette kept herself tight to him, letting him feel her warmth even as her lips left his hair and began to work at his nape. Her hands held their posts, one teasing his nipples to hard peaks, the other resolutely milking his cock of pre while aiming to win something more substantial.

“Thank you,” Reinette breathed between kisses, lips slipping apart to suckle on the side of his neck. Rhel'to whined in raw pleasure, rocking in time with her strokes with his rump brushing against her belly now. He moved his tail as best he could with how she lay, its tip brushing between her breast until it was her turn to sigh and shiver. “Oh, Rhel'to,” she crooned, kissing his neck harder. A shout from outside made him stiffen but Reinette ignored it, continuing to pleasure him beneath the covers without a care in the world. Tailfeather seemed so far away beyond the bed suddenly, Rhel'to thought before Reinette stroked her thumb over his tip and a spike of pleasure drove any musings far away as well.

“Oh love-!” he groaned, tipping his head to bury his mouth in the pillow. Even so he was sure she could feel his gasps and moans with her mouth on his neck, Reinette creeping herself up to chase her previous perch. The hand at his chest was forced to retreat from beneath him but its twin continued to stroke his cock eagerly, her pace quickening as she kissed his neck over and over in that same rhythm. Auburn hair brushed on his walnut as Reinette climbed the ridge of his jaw, bringing her kisses to his face, wrapping herself over him while she kept pleasuring him in the ways she had learned so well.

Her hand on his weeping shaft, her lips on his cheek, her heavenly body atop his, it was far too much. All he could do was keep stroking his tail back and forth on any ilm of Reinette he could reach and pour his pleasure into the pillow, hoping that she and she alone would hear. They didn't _know_ Tailfeather, that they shared a room at all was because of the fortunate turn that it was the only guest room not taken by other Manufactory employees, emissaries to the Dravanians, and adventurers on their way through to Idyllshire. Rhel'to didn't know how any of them would act if they found out about him and Reinette, whether more scorn would be hurled their way.

“I love you so much,” Reinette breathed between kisses, her lips hovering at his ear again. She rested one leg atop his hip, teasing her toes on his shin and just _brushing_ her wet slit on his rear enough to make him moan with aching want.

“Reinette, oh please-” he gasped, bucking his hips into her incredible grip. The elezen stroked her tongue up his ear again and Rhel'to felt himself about to come undone. He drowned in her, her scent, her touch, the way she brought him right to his edge and had him so close to _tipping_ -

A fist hammered on the door and they both froze, Rhel'to unable to stop himself whimpering as he was denied an instant before release. “You two, washroom's free! I don't mean to hang about waiting for you so you'd best be about it if you really want to see Sohm Al!” Booted footsteps stalked on down the hall and away, leaving the lovers shivering with Reinette's hand still on his member.

“I can-” Reinette began, moving her fingers back, but Rhel'to shook his head as he pulled his face from the pillow.

“We'd best not keep her waiting,” he sighed, feeling his cock throb with want, yearning to submit to her and let her finish him, but at the same time he knew how much Reinette wanted to visit the sacred mountain. And gods only knew when they might get another chance, what with the Manufactory ever-busier now amid mutterings that the Empire prepared for some new attack on the Ghimlyt Dark.

Reinette hesitantly released her grip on him, pressing her lips to his own instead. “Another time,” she replied with a little smile, clambering over him with their mouths staying connected. The kiss only broke once she had her feet on the floor, his lover stood over him laid completely bare. Rhel'to accepted the invitation gratefully, admiring her body as he had so often, the call to worship her tugging at him even as he too climbed out of the bed. Would that there was more _time_ , would that they had solitude, and he would happily spend an entire sun doing just that.

Reinette smiled at him like the exact same thoughts ran through her own head, retrieving her robe from where it hung on the door and slipping out toward the washroom. Her eyes never left him until the door parted them, their routine almost making the keeper chase after her before the mundane concerns caught him. The keeper of the moon sank back to sit on the bed, tail curling around to cover himself as he heard water pour and imagined Reinette about to sink into a warm bath, letting the steaming water run over her every curve-

Rhel'to shook his head, fangs resting on his lips while his cheeks burned once more. His cock showed no signs of softening, his nerves still haunted by the ghost of Reinette's touch just as his mind lingered on her beautiful bare body. The miqo'te pressed his fangs down harder and let an edge _nip_ , a spike of pain dancing down his lip where blood threatened to spill. Even so he found himself staying hard, busying himself putting the bed back to order while every splash Reinette made in the bath made his ears prick up to their peak. Once the bed was done he kept going, drawing his own dark blue robe around himself, sorting their clothes, anything to try and get his lingering erection to leave him be. Somehow he managed it, cock softening back to normal but leaving him _aching_ with an orgasm promised but not achieved.

Soon, he told himself as sternly as he could manage. He was sure that were it an actual person he was saying it to he would seem quite unimpressive.

Reinette slipped back in and Rhel'to just _stopped_ at the sight of her. Even so modest she was perfect to his eyes, damp hair resting on her shoulders, her green robe tight to her body. She smiled and he felt paralyzed, stunned by that same realization he kept having that _she_ loved _him_ , chose _him_.

“I love you,” he blurted out, cheeks hotter still, but her smile in answer was a balm for them.

“You look so handsome,” Reinette murmured as she pulled him close, pecking her lips on his forehead. “They say the lord speaker is the most handsome man in Ishgard, but I think they've got the wrong of it.”

Rhel'to laughed. “Far too kind to me, but thank you, love.” The miqo'te leaned up to kiss her lips, relishing the feel of her while trying to keep the unwelcome erotic thoughts at bay. He might as well have tried to stop the tide coming in, feeling his loins stir anew as the kiss threatened to deepen and their hands to wander. He tugged away, hating the loss of her. “Sorry.”

“Don't worry, love,” she murmured, kissing his cheek. “As soon as we can.”

“As soon as we can,” he smiled back, brushing his tail through her fingers then making for the washroom himself. Hunters passed by, chatting away, casting him curious looks even as he slipped in and bolted the door behind him. The water was still warm in the bath, the crystal beneath it still blazing away and coils of steam dancing through the air as he disrobed. Slowly Rhel'to sank beneath the water, relishing the warmth, feeling it soothe him in its hold on his whole body, but finding himself wishing Reinette was there. He couldn't say they'd ever shared a bath, the manufactory lodgings' shower _certainly_ and often, but not a bath.

Seven hells.

The keeper washed, dragging a soap bar over his skin followed by a rough cloth, rubbing the latter through his tail fur. Once every ilm was clean he buried his hair beneath the surface, the sounds of Tailfeather coming muffled as he lay still and listened to the roar of water in his ears. Deeper he sank for a moment, bathing his face then emerging with a gasp to finish washing.

For a moment, Rhel'to just sat in the cooling water, staring down at himself. A finger idly traced the boar tusk scar in his side and he smiled a little at his own idiocy, remembering the day he told Reinette that story. Masha scoffed from the past and his smile soured at the thought of her oak eyes gleaming in the gloom, judging him. The machinist's fingers left the scar and found others, the marks of thorns and branches, a sky pirate's knife on his forearm. Slowly he stirred from bygone days, leaving behind the Shroud, the journey to Ishgard, and those days where he toiled to repay Stephanivien's kindness while pining for Reinette behind a formal tone.

He'd never thought since the day of the storm that he'd find himself trying to quench his longing for her, he mused as he rose dripping from the water to towel off, hurrying as shadows loomed beneath the door. Emptying the bathtub down the drain, the miqo'te slipped back through the corridor with murmured apologies before returning to the guest room. Reinette greeted him already dressed, her hair left as it had been over the white of her shirt, black thighboots over crimson leggings and an equally crimson sleeveless coat over that. He smiled as he looked her over, even if Reinette hadn't wanted to embrace the art of the machinist she certainly wore the garb of one very well.

“Still thinking I'd make a good partner?” she teased as he cast off his robe and began to dress.

“You would,” Rhel'to grinned, working his trousers to the base of his tail and fastening them, then reaching for his shirt.

She shook her head with a sad little smile. “I wish I was good enough.”

The keeper stopped halfway through pulling his shirt on, turning to her. “You _are_ ,” he said gently. “Mayhap you weren't meant to be a machinist, but then mayhap I wasn't meant to be a hunter. Yet here we stand, together, getting by.” He smiled wide at her, taking her shoulders in his hands and stroking his thumbs on them. “I love you, Reinette.” It was just a whisper, mindful of where they were, but she heard it and her smile turned bright.

“I love you too.” Another brief brush of lips and he made to finish dressing. Waistcoat covered shirt, a pauldron buckled on his left shoulder. The miqo'te sheathed his feet in black boots and rose from the bed complete, revolver at his hip, head left bare. Much as he liked his attire, the cap it had come with smothered his ears to an unbearable degree.

“Perfect,” Reinette smiled as he holstered his revolver, aetherotransformer in place at his other hip. Dravania may have been a margin safer than when the Dragonsong War raged, but while the dragons were docile now for the most part he knew that there were plenty of other dangerous creatures roaming. Reinette might have wanted to record them in her sketchbook, but the instant she was in danger Rhel'to would act. Like he had that day in the Sea of Clouds against the vundu attacker, his normally shaking hand stilled by the threat to the woman he loved.

The miqo'te still remembered it, still dreamed of it, even. Instincts he knew he must have, all miqo'te had begun as hunters of course, but which had never come to him the way they did to his sisters. Compared to any of them it was like pitting a novice against a master, even Qina made him look like a clumsy child when she brought down a doe with a single arrow and his hand shook helplessly when he cast his spear. But when those knives gleamed so close to Reinette, when the birdman loomed over her, he'd felt it all burn through him. Anger and fear and the urge to kill all at once, sending a bullet from his revolver right through the vundu's chest.

But then, Rhel'to thought as they gathered their belongings and made for the bridge at Tailfeather's heart, Reinette had always made him feel things he had never found in the Shroud. Love and longing, protectiveness, _desire_ -

_Seven hells_.

Angelet awaited on the bridge with an impatient little frown on her lips, the huntress dressed all in dark green with a bow and quiver over her shoulder. Her chocobo waited at her side, its yellow feathers more muted than most beneath dark leather barding and an ugly scar torn beneath one eye.

“Good to see you,” the blonde midlander scoffed as she tossed the bird a gysahl green. The morsel vanished with a snap of beak and a happy chirp. “Now, I know a good spot for you to get a fine look at Sohm Al and I gather you,” she nodded curtly at Reinette, “want to _draw_ some fierce beasties, well, I don't fathom it but your choice.” She shrugged. “I'll lead you there, go do my share of the hunting while you take in the sights, and then I'll come get you on my way back around noon, understood?”

“Understood,” Reinette and Rhel'to chorused in answer.

Angelet had another curt nod to offer. “You're not the normal breed of noblewoman, I'll give you that,” she said to Reinette, looking her up and down as the elezen started. “Lass, you might try to talk like a Myste out of the Brume, but I know a Pillars accent sure as the sun goes up in the east and down in the west. I'm not interested in prying, just find it passing strange to see someone like you dressed up like one of Stephanivien's tinkers.” She pursed her lips and whistled, two more chocobos padding over. Both were the bright yellow Rhel'to knew, a little smaller than Angelet's bird. “Bravebeak and Brightfeather. Docile enough, shouldn't buck you off, but they're not scrappers like Ironclaw here so don't get too close to those beasties, aye?”

“Aye,” Reinette nodded, immediately making for Brightfeather. Rhel'to followed more cautiously, he knew the _general_ idea of chocobo riding and a lad at the stables had let him ride on a dare once or twice, but even so the thought of trying to ride while also dodging trees and Dravania's monsters made him nervous, he had to admit.

“Now what's this?” Angelet chuckled from Ironclaw's back. “Scared of chocobos, catboy?”

Rhel'to shook his head. “No.”

“Well then, hop on,” she teased, turning her own bird toward the east as Reinette clambered up onto Brightfeather. “Your lady friend's got the knack.” She'd been trained as a girl, more accurately, Rhel'to thought as he awkwardly tried to mount Bravebeak. The chocobo eyed him suspiciously as he made his way up onto the saddle, gently stroking its neck before he cautiously spurred it in imitation of Reinette. She rode like a natural while he followed, the three of them riding in a loose arrowhead out of Tailfeather and into the forest. There was only a rough path to follow, giant trees on all sides as they looped around to cross the river at a further bridge then headed straight through. With all his focus on riding he could only barely take in the creatures they glimpsed in passing, strange feline beasts, more chocobos, gigantic vilekin and several more. Soon the trees began to thin and the ground ahead started to rise, Angelet bringing her steed to a halt.

“This is where I leave you,” she said with a glance around. A shadow passed overhead and Rhel'to looked up to see a dragon swoop by, heading somewhere off to the southwest judging by its position against the morning sun. “You have a few bells to yourself, eh?” The huntress chuckled, turning Ironclaw in place back toward the forest. “Obviously I don't have to tell you to watch for dangerous beasties, but be careful with the plants too. We've had some strange things come down off Sohm Al, as best we can tell, and I wouldn't suggest you get too close to them.”

Rhel'to nodded. “We'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Angelet.”

“Happy hunting,” she laughed as she spurred Ironclaw away. Within a minute, she was gone entirely amid the trees, only the forest's sounds left to them.

Reinette dismounted as elegantly as she had mounted, gently petting Brightfeather as Rhel'to gingerly climbed down. The auburn-haired elezen smiled at him. “Ignore her, Rhel'to. You rode him well for your first time on him.”

The keeper landed heavily as he slipped the last ilms off Bravebeak's back. “You're too kind again,” he murmured. “I feel like a child next to you.”

Reinette wrapped an arm around his shoulders and held him close, kissing at his lips. “Come on,” she murmured. “I want to make the most of this before we head back.” Right. They were due to return to Ishgard by dusk, away from this wonderful green forest that reminded him of his childhood haunts. Looking around he could almost imagine Masha amid these trees, like they were no different from those of the Shroud. No doubt she'd be on the hunt with spear in hand if she were there.

When he looked west through the trees, he could only keep craning his neck up and up to follow the mountain that rose. Sohm Al _towered_ , rising to a peak that hovered like the islands of the Sea of Clouds and vanished into a layer of impenetrable mist before he could see the very tip of it. Just staring up at it made Rhel'to feel minuscule and breathless, crushed by the sense of awe at a mountain tall enough to pierce the sky itself.

“If only we could climb it,” Reinette sighed, following his gaze.

Rhel'to smiled at her. “I almost think you'd risk it for the chance to sketch a dragon,” he said. “But best not to trespass.” She nodded reluctantly with a longing stare up Sohm Al, but after all, it was sacred ground. The Warrior of Light and her ilk might have had the strength to climb it regardless of the dragons who defended their peak, but Rhel'to knew full well he was nowhere close to that sort of might. And even if he could, neither of them wanted to kill dragons, not after Ishgard had spent a thousand years doing just that in the name of lies.

They turned slowly away from Sohm Al's majesty and instead wandered the forest, keeping their steeds close as they passed between the trees. The sun climbed higher in the sky overhead to warm the chill morning air, bathing them in its rays as they walked through clearings and stopped whenever Reinette spotted a fascinating creature to sit and draw. While she sat drawing a bear, he stood watching her with a hand not far from his revolver, admiring her work. When she stopped to chew on her pencil a moment he smiled from his post against a tree, the sunlight pleasant on his ears as he admired his lover's beauty amid a forest that only seemed to enhance her.

The blue-eyed elezen put the finishing touches to her sketch and held it up to him with a smile.

“Just like the real thing,” Rhel'to grinned back.

“Now it's you who's too kind,” Reinette teased as she rose from her stony perch, folding the book closed. “I wish I could have come here sooner. I haven't even had a good glimpse of a dragon yet, but these animals are _incredible_.”

“Where did you want to head next?” he asked. “I heard some of the others talking about some ruins to the north where dragons nest.”

Her eyes sparkled. “I'm sure we've time to get a look and get back for Angelet.” She whistled as she all but skipped away, the two chocobos trailing after her while Rhel'to beamed and followed suit. Even though he tried to keep a watchful eye he found her enthusiasm infectious. Living with Reinette day by day was a dream come true, undoubtedly, but he never loved it more than when they got to steal away from Ishgard and spend time together in the wild. Coerthas or Dravania, no matter which, it was like escape from Ishgard was a tonic for a long-held illness Reinette had. How he longed for that tonic to be something he could give her more than a sun or two at a time.

How he longed for what he had said that night in the Sea of Clouds. Take me with you, he'd said, let me travel with you. Rhel'to wanted to let her spread her clipped wings and soar with her, just walk the world to every corner and cranny. It wasn't within reach, not yet, he mused as they worked through tangled undergrowth and hid behind trees to let a pack of bandersnatches pass. But they were clawing their way, striving and saving.

The keeper and the elezen passed into a glade and Rhel'to stiffened. Something seemed different, the plants around them _odd_. The forest had its own scent, distinct from the Shroud but consistent, and this place suddenly assaulted him with a dizzying new array. He tried to pick them out, loamy soil and old bark replaced by a bitter tang. The sounds he had hear so keenly seemed distant, the bubbling of a stream, the cries and howls of animals, even the rustle of leaves in the breeze.

“Rhel'to?” Reinette asked. When he glanced back he found Brightfeather and Bravebeak warily hanging at a distance, the birds staring with tilted heads.

“There's something odd here,” he murmured, regarding the plants. Odd bulbous bulbs surrounded them as they stepped closer, dotting the glade and rising out of thick grass around their ankles. Reinette reached for her sketchbook curiously as she approached one of the larger bulbs, a plant almost the size of a man. “Reinette...”

“I've never seen anything like it,” she said softly. Rhel'to followed, casting his eyes around, but the only thing in sight was the strange bulbs. No animals seemed to venture here, the chocobos keeping back, and he felt a chill trace down his spine.

Before either of them could do or say anything more, the strange bulb burst. Flaps of dripping plant flesh splattered Reinette and Rhel'to, viscous sap drenching skin and clothes while a thick cloud of green spores engulfed them in an instant. It all happened too fast for them to avoid the plant's sudden destruction or even to hold their breaths against the spores, each taking in a lungful before they could even register what exactly had happened.

“I see what Angelet meant about 'strange things',” Rhel'to coughed, hacking out a few spores but surely more many more had already slipped into his lungs. “Twelve, I hope it isn't poisonous.” A strange taste lay on his tongue, not precisely unpleasant, a touch bitter and like nothing he'd ever had before.

“Mayhap we should head back,” Reinette said, trying to brush the plant's remains from her sketchbook with a little frown. Rhel'to couldn't help but smile despite his concern, moving to help her and admiring how little she cared about being soaked with strange sap. Lovingly he plucked pieces of leaf from her hair until she turned to do the same, giggling a little. “We really ought to head back, love. For all we know we could drop dead any moment.”

Rhel'to nodded, he of all people should have made that point first. Even in the Black Shroud there were plants he had been taught from childhood to leave well be, and Dravania was an even stranger place by far so being incautious seemed a terrible idea. “Yes, let's move.” But even as they turned to leave the glade he already felt that something was amiss, a glance at Reinette finding her cheeks flushed while he simply felt  _warm_ , warmer than the weak sunshine could explain. His lover held his gaze like a magnet, desire rearing its head more fiercely than ever as he found her looking back at him with a desperate hunger glowing in her eyes.

The pollen, his mind began, but that was as far as he got. His loins throbbed, heat pulsing through his blood to rouse instincts he had never indulged. They drew closer to each other, muscles tensing, Reinette's scent mixing with the plant's,  _gods_ how tantalizing she was all of a sudden. Conscious thought was swiftly banished, leaving only a raw, infernal  _need_ .

Reinette made to pounce but Rhel'to was faster, his legs stronger, and so it was he who pinned her down against the ground. Their fingers were like claws to tear at clothes, his waistcoat and shirt ripped away, her coat and shirt too followed swiftly by the band around her breasts. The keeper of the moon drank her in for the briefest moment, her nipples already pebbled, both of them panting as he pushed her legs apart and humped his hardening cock right against her. The elezen whimpered as he  _growled_ , purring furiously as he took her exposed neck with his mouth.

_Mine_ .

His hot blood sang with desire as he pressed fang and tooth to her skin, every moan she poured against his ear stoking that inferno hotter and higher. Rhel'to's hands scraped down her body with nails digging in, overcome by the primordial urge to  _mark_ and  _claim_ and  _mate_ and  _breed_ . His fangs dug in hard until Reinette wailed, her hips meeting his in nothing less than rutting as he kept her pinned in the grass and his hands worked at her leggings. Words failed them both, sounds as primal as their instincts all that escaped agape mouths, snarls and groans and moans blending into a raw animal symphony. His whole fang pierced flesh and he tasted blood, Reinette's shriek of mixed pleasure and pain music to his addled mind as the broken fang sought to copy its brother. Manage that it did, cracked edges  _biting_ until more of the elezen's blood ran around it. The copper tang washed over his tongue, fangs marking her  _his_ before withdrawing to let crimson dye her throat and the ribbon around it.

Fabric screeched, ripped, snapped. Reinette’s brais tore down her legs, cuffing her legs at the knees as she struggled against him, panties dragged with them to hang halfway down her thighs visibly drenched. Free of her clothes, the heady scent of her soaked flower filled his nose like liquid, thick and cloying, sticking on his tongue as he panted in agonized want. Her own hands gripped at his back, her nails scraping trails of pain down his spine as she snarled wildly up at him, their kisses fiery again but doing nothing to banish the intoxicating scent of Reinette’s need. Her legs kicked at him as she tried to get his cock back against her, digging her nails in until it was his turn to howl.

The miqo’te nipped at her jaw, fangs free to leave their marks for all the world to see, his body pressed to hers to sear his scent even deeper into hers. He wanted her bare and so he tugged at her clothes again, working his knees over them as they passed down her legs with more seams snapping in his roughness. Soon leggings and panties lay somewhere behind him and the elezen lay naked beneath him, her drenched quim staining his unbearably tight trousers as he rutted against her with each scrape of fangs on flesh. Reinette whimpered between feral pants, nails ceasing their marks at the base of his back to instead tear at his own clothes. Even so they simply couldn’t stop, overcome by that most base of instincts to mark one another, to claim their mate in signs none could fail to miss. Scents mixed with their sweat-soaked bodies tight, nails and teeth both staining skin in red and purple, lips swollen from deep hard kisses, Rhel’to’s trousers coming down with laces frayed apart. His smalls followed suit at Reinette’s pull, cock springing free to finally touch her with nothing between. Another whimper passed her lips, her eyes mad with lust as she bucked onto him, seeking to be taken, desperate to take him inside her. But the instincts he had never indulged breathed hot on his mind, driving him to a feral edge even as Reinette’s hand pumped his shaft so tight it was almost uncomfortable.

The elezen yelped as Rhel’to wrenched her up, tugging her over in the grass while he slipped out from under her. She was left breathless as he rose over her, eyes wandering down her back to find where his own nails had marked, then the ground’s own marks on her modest rump. Reinette’s sex peeked glistening between her thighs as the miqo’te stalked around to her back, hands taking damp flesh and slipping her legs apart after she rose onto all fours. Rhel’to flowed his fingers up her legs in a rush, brushing them over her slit with her moan of want in his ears, then over the curve of her rear to scrape up her back either side of her spine. Like an animal he clawed up to press himself to her, hips firm on her backside with his throbbing hardness brushing her sex with each buck, face in her hair then at the nape of her neck.

He was too consumed by lust to speak, to do anything more than sing raw desire in each pant, moan and growl, she the same as she pressed herself against him. Even in this position Reinette fought to take control, thrusting herself back to impale herself on his cock, head twisting to try and meet his face, but Rhel’to  _had_ her. In time with his press into her sex he pressed teeth onto her nape and felt her wild breath hitch, a throaty moan forced out of her when his head forced her petals apart. 

_Mine_ , his blood whispered.

Fangs marked her again and he quested down the side of her neck, reaching an ilm higher as he took her more roughly than ever before. The elezen cried out at the top of her lungs as Rhel’to bucked and forced his whole cock inside her, his hips slapping hard on her rump before he tugged back and took her to the hilt again. Again and again the miqo'te filled her with his member, skin smacking while her nectar squelched around him, her scent growing more intoxicating as he continued to mark her his with fang and nail alike. In his throes he barely glimpsed her fingers tighten in the grass, pinning her down while he continued to furiously claim her. Her moans came rough and strained, her voice a raw growl as she bucked against him and received his thrusts with a feral need in how she moved. Auburn hair danced on her shoulders as they shuddered with every crash of hips, head rising to let her scream ring through the trees. All he could think of was  _her_ , her scent, her taste, the feel of her quim around his cock with every  _deep_ thrust right into her most sensitive spot. 

She was his,  _his_ , taken and marked, filled with his cock. Rhel'to purred against her throat and the elezen moaned in answer to another hilt-deep rut, head falling to let her hair brush in the grass. The keeper was incandescent with need and want, a raw primal thing that could only be burned out in her sodden heat. Again and again he buried himself in Reinette with all his might until they both cried with raw throats, shivering despite how unbearably hot their bodies burned and how their sweat dripped heavy into the grass that was their nest. Nails bit at Reinette's side and she gasped while his fingers tightened on furrowed skin, gripping her tight in frenzied anticipation. His heady breath washed on her stained neck as he panted away, feeling the final mark about to be made.

Exhaustion began to creep into the keeper's body, but he chased their end in desperate fervor to stay ahead of it. Reinette's cries faded into whimpers with her voice spent and her throat hoarse from wailing for the forest to hear, slumping down beneath his weight and only just meeting his wild thrusts. Her skin glistened in the sunlight as rivulets traced their paths over the furrows of nail and the marks of fangs, Rhel'to nipping to add another mark to the many that branded her. His own cuts stung in his sweat but sheer exhilaration and frenzy kept the pain a distant ache, the ecstasy of her walls clenching on his cock far outweighing it. Reinette came with a weak wail, her whole body shuddering and panting against him as she tightened like a vice on his cock.

The most primordial of desires burned hot with his own release so painfully  _close_ . Even with Reinette spent Rhel'to kept going, a single thought in his mind overwhelming all. How he longed to climax inside her, to plant his seed in her womb and let it take root. She would swell with it, grow round and full with  _their child_ , bear the perfect proof of their bond within her and nurture it while he tended her every need. The  _rightness_ of it had him breathless, panting heavy on her sodden skin, bucking into her with no desire left except to  _breed_ Reinette with his kit and watch that seed grow. Crying out with a throat that ached, he poured himself into her, caking her walls in his release, spurting it as deep as he could inside her and daring to believe he soaked her very womb with how far he thrust into her unbearably tight sex. Once it was done and he had nothing more to give, at last they both collapsed exhausted in the grass with chests heaving and eyes burning with a vicious kind of afterglow. They panted against each other, their releases splattered across their thighs, her slit and his cock, mingling with the sweat that drowned their bodies. Slowly they cooled and the haze of lust thinned away, replaced with cool clarity. Glancing around at the glade he found the chocobos miraculously still at their post, eyeing their riders with a judgmental sort of curiosity, but like a magnet Reinette swiftly tugged his gaze back.

Rhel'to stared down Reinette's body and while normally he would feel happiness and contentment, he found only shame as his eyes traced the mark of claw and nail. Marks  _he_ had carved in her, all but  _defiling_ her. Freed from the feral need the pollen had roused, he was left in cold horror to behold his handiwork, trembling with a stab of self-loathing. How could he have succumbed? How could he have  _ruined_ Reinette so even under the strange plant's influence?

Reinette stared down his body with the same kind of look in her eyes, hesitantly reaching to brush fingertips over stinging cuts, finding furrows and softly rubbing them until he winced. “Rhel'to,” she croaked at last, her azure eyes on his green with both brimming. “Oh, Rhel'to, I-”

“Forgive me,” Rhel'to whimpered, focusing on her eyes if only to escape the proof of his weakness. But it was plain for all to see what he had done to her. _Claimed_ her like some randy beast, marked her like an animal. _Bred_ her with no thought but-

Reinette crept closer and wrapped arms around him, hugging him close. His thoughts stopped, the hatred aimed solely at himself, the fear that she would cast him away, even the pain of his own wounds lost in her embrace. “Forgive  _me_ ,” she breathed weakly. “It's my fault. If I hadn't been so careless...”

“I hurt you,” the keeper whispered, dipping his lips. He found the marks of _his fangs_ red and raw in her neck and brushed his lips to them again and again, childish, useless, but he apologized for each crimson mark with a gentle kiss to torn bruised skin. Reinette winced and whimpered in pain but when he made to pull away she shook her head. “Reinette, oh Twelve, what have I-”

Another shake of her head. “I would have ruined you, love,” she breathed, finding her own marks in him and reciprocating the apologetic kisses. “I wanted to, by the Fury, all I wanted was to pin you in the grass and make you mine like a beast would. And if I'd been more careful we'd have been safe.” Guilt pooled cold in his belly even so, making him shiver while Reinette held him tight. “Don't blame yourself, Rhel'to. If anyone is to blame-”

“I should have resisted it,” he sobbed into her neck, still pressing soft kisses, lips coming away marked red. “The things I thought, the things I did, Reinette, by Menphina I should have been _better_ -”

Hands stroked at hair and skin, arms tight to his bruised body, Reinette's lips in his hair. “If you should have resisted, love, then the same fault is mine, and I'm sure if it were possible then you would have moved a mountain before succumbing to it.” A harsh cough brushed over his hair and ear, ripped raw from her throat. “We could lay here all day and pour blame on our own heads, I suppose, but that'll leave us bloody and bare when Angelet comes back. What a sight we'd make.”

Despite his tears, Rhel'to laughed at that thought. He kept kissing her, every mark he had left apologized for with a gentle brush of his lips, trying to soothe her pain with gentle love. “I love you,” he breathed to her.

“I love you too,” Reinette crooned, stroking a hand over his ear. “Oh, Rhel'to...” He kept going, determined to atone even in such a small way. He traced his lips over her back next, finding the furrows of his fingers and following each with his kisses, descending to her hips and thighs to find more fingermarks in her flesh. Even with her words he still felt stings of guilt as he saw each one, he had never been so rough with her, never _wanted_ to be so rough with her. How could he? He adored Reinette too keenly to want to risk hurting her with rough treatment, even in bed.

“Reinette,” he sighed as he finished and crept back to kiss at her face. The elezen smiled at him, just slowly breathing a while as they cooled in the winter air. But with their feral heat spent that cold began to eat at their bodies, too bitter to bear. “We should clean up before Angelet comes back.” He didn't know how much time had passed, any sense of that lost to the madness, so Angelet might return in a minute or a bell.

Reinette nodded. “There's a spring or a stream nearby. I heard it.”

Rhel'to nodded with a little smile. “Not more than a few hundred yalms I think. We can wash off.” Slowly he rose, aching limbs protesting, Reinette's marks in his skin still burning in the sunlight. He helped Reinette rise, staring at her with admiration and lingering guilt both, admiring her naked beauty, ashamed at how he had marred that beauty. Even with her telling him it wasn't his fault, even when he tried to tell himself, the memory of how roughly he had fucked her and the thoughts that had burned in his mind left the keeper feeling like he had violated something sacred.

Mayhap Reinette sensed his guilt, because she stopped gathering her abandoned clothes and pulled him close again. “You still think it your fault?”

Rhel'to nodded. “I never... how could I treat you-”

“It wasn't you,” Reinette murmured soothingly. “It might as well have been someone else, Rhel'to. I know you would never treat me so, unless mayhap I asked you to.”

“Mayhap,” he agreed hesitantly, unsure himself whether even Reinette asking would let him overcome how sick to his very stomach the thought of hurting her made him. It wasn't that he didn't understand that some people _enjoyed_ being treated so roughly, but if it was in his blood to do so then it was buried so deep that only that infernal pollen had ever teased it out. As they gathered their clothes and walked bare through the trees, only their boots left on, he couldn't stop turning it over in his head until Reinette caressed his shoulder.

“Are you afraid I'll run away from you?” she pressed. “That I think differently of you because of it, Rhel'to?” He couldn't hide from her gaze, slowly nodding. They stumbled over a root buried in the grass, catching each other, Rhel'to holding her as she held him. “It wasn't you, Rhel'to, love. I could never hate you.” She kissed him there amid the sunlit trees and Dravanian flowers, again and again, trying to walk and keep kissing him like she wanted to kiss his every doubt away. They kept going, almost tripping, nearly falling, clinging to one another with bunches of clothes in between, glimpsing their route wildly in case a bear should wander into their path. The stream bubbled closer and closer before coming into view, sun-dappled with patches of brilliance, its presence finally stopping the tide of gentle kisses. 

They abandoned their clothes at its bank and waded in, sinking beneath the water as best they could, shivering at its icy touch. Strands of red and white pulled away from skin to be taken in the currant, their cuts scabbing over, pain fading slowly away in the stream's cleansing touch. Slowly they twinned together again while Brightfeather and Bravebeak stood sentinel over their clothes, embracing while pain, shame and guilt followed the blood and seed downriver. Rhel'to kissed Reinette again, rubbing his hands gently over her marks again as she reciprocated in kind, whispering that she loved him again and again just above the water's bubbling.

“I suppose,” Reinette murmured, relaxing into him, “that we got to finish what we began after all.” Despite himself he laughed with her, that silly glee enough to force the guilt down out of mind. 

“Yes, I suppose we did,” the keeper murmured with a little smile, kissing her again. They rested there a while, holding one another as long as they could before stumbling back onto the shore. The lovers dried off as best they could in the cool air, pulling their clothes back onto damp bodies before frostbite could begin its work on their skin. Seeing his bites still red and purple on her neck, Rhel'to gently wrapped his collar around her throat to cover them, his waistcoat around her shoulders. Carefully Rhel'to led them around the grove of strange bulbs, taking them back south toward where they had began.

Their hands twined together as they walked, all forgiven, all at peace. The keeper slowly brushed his tail on Reinette's back and she smiled at him warmly, pecking his cheek. They approached the spot where Angelet had left them, finding it still empty.

“I suppose we have some more time,” Reinette murmured, reaching back to pet Bravebeak as the chocobo approached. 

Rhel'to was silent a moment, just staring at her. He felt the ribbon around his neck more keenly, like suddenly it was steel instead of cloth. He remembered Starlight, tying it around his throat, swearing in his mind to love Reinette and cherish her. Doubts reared their ugly heads, guilt joining them when he found the merest splotch of red peeking from beneath her collar. Again she sensed it and drew closer, stroking gently at his cheek. “Forgive me,” he murmured, trying to apologize for many things at once.

“Always,” she smiled, leaning down to peck his lips. “But you've nothing to be forgiven for today, Rhel'to. You've always _cared_ for me, even before either of us could admit how we felt. And since that night, you've done nothing but love me, even when I came to you in disgrace.”

His own finger traced the faint scar down her cheek. “I love you, Reinette. I promise I always will.” Fingertips touched the green ribbon at his throat and the keeper shivered beneath her touch. He stared into her eyes, seeing love burn hot in their depths, her joy so raw it made him breathless. He longed to pour his heart out to her right there and then, how much he wanted to whisk her away from cold stony Ishgard and let her bathe in the sunlight all across the star. How much he longed to follow her wherever the wind took her, to stay at her side through thick and thin until the end of their days. Mayhap lingering guilt and shame spurred him on, he thought before another kiss made him lost in her. Without the pollen to drive him mad with lust, he worshiped her face instead, pouring kisses, crooning I love yous again and again. The keeper could have said it all day long, his heart a bottomless fount, but leaves rustled and they drew apart startled.

Angelet rode in on Ironclaw, saddlebags noticeably fuller than when she had left, a deer's carcass strung across her bird right before where she sat. The hyur eyed them suspiciously. “You're looking awful damp there.”

“We found one of those strange plants,” Reinette said while Rhel'to struggled for an explanation. “Awful spores, made us itch all over. We had to wash them off in a stream.”

“Lucky your clothes stayed dry,” the huntress chuckled. “And shame you didn't heed my advice, though I suppose a bad itch is quite tame for what this place can do to you. And you kept my birds safe, so no harm done.” 

“Aye,” the elezen smiled, winning a little grin from Angelet.

“Now what did I say, lass? You can talk like a Brume girl but you're Pillars born and bred, don't go trying to fool me,” she said, turning Ironclaw around. “You get what you wanted out here?”

Reinette and Rhel'to exchanged glances. “Yes,” Rhel'to said. Angelet looked between them with a grin.

“Now what're those suspicious looks about? I suppose you took a tumble while I was gone, is that it?” she cackled. “Ah, whatever, keep your secrets. So long as you got your pretty pictures and I got my hunting done, I'm satisfied. Mount up and let's get home before your ride back to Ishgard leaves without you.”

“Right,” Rhel'to murmured. He had almost forgotten, lost in Reinette's company, the crazed sex staining him with emotions. “Back to Ishgard.”

Reinette nodded as she made to mount Brightfeather. “Back to Ishgard.” She sounded a little melancholy and Rhel'to wished Angelet wasn't there, that he could freely reach out and hug her tight. He resolved to cuddle her close the first private moment they got, or failing that to just lay beside her in his bed when they reached home.

He glanced around the forest at that thought, again remembering a different forest, darker, in some ways more dangerous, but more familiar and more fondly remembered. That forest had had sisters, mother and grandmother amid the trees, father out somewhere beneath the Black Shroud's boughs. Rhel'to wondered a moment how they fared since he had come to Ishgard, frozen in thought, staring wistfully at the trees.

“Going to mount up, lad?” Angelet chuckled. “Your lady friend's ahead of you again!” Reinette smiled down at him as he clambered awkwardly onto Bravebeak, spurring the chocobo after the two women as they raced back through the Forelands toward Tailfeather. Toward a caravan back to Ishgard. Toward Ishgard itself, home as they knew it.

Rhel'to's regrets continued to coil, but when he caught a fleeting glimpse of Reinette's eyes glancing back, they were quenched. He was being foolish, understandably, but he  _was_ . Torturing himself over something he couldn't control, when Reinette had not only forgiven every mark he left in her but outright said he didn't need to be forgiven in the first place. Whatever would grandma say if she found  _that_ out? He wasn't sure whether she'd cackle the louder at Rhel'to, meek little Rhel'to, marking and rutting Reinette like a wild animal or at him tormenting himself with guilt over something that few would consider their fault under the circumstances.

He could all but hear that wheezing laughter ringing in his ears.  _“Rhel'to, you daft lad, you got all your father's thoughts but none of your grandma's brains.”_

As they rode into Tailfeather and returned the chocobos to their stables, that thought nagged at him. He stood with Reinette a while in the guest room while they packed the few things they had brought out on their expedition, stealing the briefest kiss in a moment of solitude, then bringing their belongings to load onto the cart. It would be a long ride through the Western Highlands to Falcon's Nest, he thought, and while the route was safer than before with the Horde quelled, the weather was still perilous.

The wagon set into motion, pulled by two chocobos, and from their perch at its back Reinette and Rhel'to stared back toward Sohm Al's towering form through the trees. They left behind forest and the memory of what they had done beneath its boughs, Tailfeather and its hunters, the exotic plants and animals Reinette had recorded in her sketchbook. They left behind the Dravanian flowers in all their splendor and danger.

And they rode toward Ishgard with thoughts of another forest, of other flowers in Rhel'to's heart.


End file.
